Monday, November 17, 2008

Nintendo Places Its Customers At The Center Of His Communication

Nintendo Struggling in the 2000sLet's go back a little bit in time. In the late 90s', Nintendo was going in limbo. After having dominated the growing video game market in the 80s and the 90s, Nintendo had to face a new competitor arriving: Sony. Afterward, the Playstation started its expansion, and Nintendo was struggling to get back on track. The Nintendo 64 was released at least 3 years too late, and they were clearly two steps behind the other competitors.Nintendo Lost The Challenge Of TechnologyThe Gamecube has never been able to be close to the performance of the Xbox or the Playstation 2. The gap seemed so large that a lot of specialist considered Nintendo doomed, as Sega had already give up a little bit earlier with the too small success of its Dreamcast.

However, Nintendo did not give up, and rather than keeping on trying to make as powerful systems as the competition, they decided to be different, and focus on what made their success: create fun and innovative games.

Be DifferentThat is the main reason why Nintendo had experienced great success with its two new systems, the Nintendo DS, and the Wii. Both hardwares are far away for the PSP's and Playstation 3's technologies, but they have focus on designing games and a gameplay you could never approach with other devices.

By providing a unique gameplay and a very different experience, they have been able to catch the attention of the audience.

Nintendo Commercials Are Focusing On The Customer ExperienceThis focus on the gameplay, the innovation and the gamer experience, you can notice it while watching some Nintendo's commercials. As you can see, and that is somehow a revolution in the video game industry, you are not focusing on famous labels like James Bond or King Kong, nor on the excellent and realistic design of the characters. Nintendo show you every day life people having fun like you would with your friends.

Because actually what people are looking for when playing a video game is not to see a movie, but to interract and to have fun.

ConclusionNintendo earned back its success because it focused its product development on the customer experience, more than on the technology ability of the product. This is a great example of a company that decided to be different, work on its customers' will, and experience great success.